


At Dawn

by Fate Loveless (lady_hellblazer)



Series: Dawn to Dusk [1]
Category: Fate/Grand Order, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms, Fate/stay night - All Media Types, Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works (Anime 2014)
Genre: Angst, Fluff and Angst, Forbidden Love, Gen, Love, Love/Hate, M/M, Mild Smut, Obsession, Possessive Behavior, True Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:28:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26478748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lady_hellblazer/pseuds/Fate%20Loveless
Summary: Cu and Emiya wake up together and it's the happiest and saddest moment of their lives.Or Cu is so in love with Emiya but he knows their time is short.Emiya loves him back and the two of them make the most of their time together.
Relationships: Cú Chulainn | Lancer/Heroic Spirit EMIYA | Archer
Series: Dawn to Dusk [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1970275
Comments: 12
Kudos: 129





	At Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> First off,I'm new to the fate series and the extent of my knowledge is the following : Fate/Stay Night:Unlimited Blade Works (anime and movie), Fate/Zero, Fate/Prototype ,Fragments of Silver and Blue (still unfinished) and started watching Fate/Grand Order Movies and play throughs.. Anyway,it always intrigued me how Lacner and Archer were at each others throats before,but during Fate/Ataraxia, and Today's Menu for the Emiya family,the beef seems mostly squashed.So I have to wonder,how? 
> 
> (Simple.Archer Emiya gave up that sweet ass and now they're good to go)
> 
> OK not really.But this ship is kinda a thing (All on pixiv and other places) so I decided to take a crack at it. Sorry if anything seems OOC but as I said I'm new and also working with Cu Chulainn who is NOT a main.He gets enough screen time but we never really get inside his head.I also took references from his mythology so that influences how I write Cu.

Warm.That's the first thing I feel when I woke up this morning. The blankets and sheets are responsible for that,along with the gorgeous man beside me, Emiya.

Emiya who's heart is made of glass, Emiya who I know so much and so little about. Emiya who reminds me of dying light on the worst of days, who's smile makes me melt whenever I see it.

I sigh content as I tighten my hold on him. Letting him go was never an option,losing him is the only choice I have. Twelve hours is all we have left.

It's past dawn now so there's time.But in twelve hours that will all change.Under the cover of night we will have to fight and he will lose,we'll both lose.I'll be forced to watch him fade again and again until he's nothing.Then soon,I will follow him as I cant bare the pain of watching him go.

He is my enemy. At least he should be.

He is my lover, and I know well he shouldn't be.

But let it not be said that I never made mistakes in my life, bad ones that haunt me to this day. But unlike Emiya who's phantoms on bad nights make him scream and cry himself to sleep , I've taken to lay my demons to rest as I weald my spear.I've learned how to deal with loss.

With the drag of a cigarette and wandering thoughts I can cope on good days.Watch the clouds,fish the waters and just let the day pass by. Finding something to do with myself takes the edge off. I've even kept jobs from time to time.

On bad days though,, I remember to get a bottle ,hope for a fight or something else to distract me from those bad memories.But the ale of this era tastes dilluted like everything else.Its harder to get drunk and forget myself, harder still to find someone to spar without promise of death .Everyone is too comfortable these days I don't know how to feel about that...the world I knew is gone...

Still,I can make myself forget so much now,it's easier.But I can never forget him, at least not completely.

I can never forget Emiya.

Emiya who comes to me in shades of pale and dark like his moonlight hair and dark skin.He comes to me in blurs of red and blood and tears that had long dried as we stare each other down like it's the end of everything or the beggining of something. It comes hazy then vibrantly clear,like the bits and pieces of my life I bury.

( _Except in rare dreams and the rush of adrenaline in my veins. Some things a person never forgets)._

Emiya isn't so lucky it seems. For him it's always a blur coming back to him in the worst ways.

But I'm glad to know that last night was a good night at least. The only thing that made him scream and cry was me as we made love, as we got lost in each other for once not in battle but something equally intense, all consuming.

_(The way we fit together so perfectly,the way he feels inside,his voice as I burry into him so deep I swear I can feel his pulse with my own when we're like this ...feel his sweat,breath him in and just feel...)_

I have had many lovers,in this time and from before. Willing strangers here and gone,some staying for longer .All fragments from eras lost.

But none of them are Emiya.

Something about Emiya sticks to me so deeply I can't seem to crawl away from him. Not in the battle field, not in times like now as we lay there alone with ourselves and our demons hidden somewhere deep.

Something about Emiya makes my blood rush,makes me want to descend upon him. Our fights are always the kind that hold me locked in place,latched onto him,wanting to chase him down and catch him before he slips away. When we make love,I want to fill him with everything in me and hold him tight and never let go. And even now, like this, I tighten my hold on him, wanting to draw him in as I do every time he draws his blade,every time we hold hands.

Like every time he looks my way, every time he looks away ,every time he so much as breaths and I feel his mana,his heartbeat somewhere near. Like I do every time we lay togeher no matter where or how. Under the dark,the light,before and after a fight, I want to hold him close until we meld,until even his deep skin is marred by the unrelenting strength gifted to me that could break almost anyone and anything (but never him). I want him so badly that I can barely keep him off my mind.

 _Emiya_.

The sound of his name to me is a mantra.

 _Emiya_.

I want to kiss you, like before and before and before and kiss you more so much so it makes my head spin

I would do practically anything for you,kill any and everyone for you,

_Emiya_

The way you get under my skin,the way I'm always drawn to you,your heart,your smile.I want to hold onto you forever more and so much more.

That's how I knew I loved you...

_Emiya_

That's what I think as we lay side by side in each other's arms and bathed in morning light and shade.

That's where my mind is,where my heart is at this very moment.

The bed shifts,the springs creak.Emiya lets out low yawn before he turns to gaze me back with sleepy brown eyes(such pretty eyes)...the same eyes that hold a loneliness and despair every time either of us tastes blood (each other's blood).Eyes that look for once content with a smile behind them cast from the light of Lugh that dances against his lovely skin. I smile back and then all is right a least for the moment.

We were lucky to have masters who were negligent. For him a secret mage who didn't want to explain why there were strange people in her home. Servants mages come off pretty odd compared to civilians. And mine a man who's always busy and ambitious, not knowing it'll mean nothing in the end.

I've had masters so cruel that I've had to put them down, and I've done the same for Emiya too even though it would only make him fade again. I don't want anyone else to hurt him anymore but that's wishful thinking...something I learned to do away with long ago.

( _But if I could protect him,would it change things? If I could find a way...Emiya has a gentle heart.That's something worth protecting...but the way it's made him...)_

For now though we have this, we have us and it's something I hadn't known I needed until I had it.Until I had him,

Emiya...

He shifts again,I move closer and he rubs his eyes half clutching the pillow and God it's the cutest thing. For all that everyone see of Emiya or 'Archer' as they know him to be,they never see this side of him. Soft,mellowed out,comfortable,vulnerable.It's ironic but for all the crap luck I get,I feel lucky to have these moments.So I hold onto them whenever I can. Emiya likes to hide himself from others ,hid himself from me before but that's changed now. Now he's right here,raw and true and being so human that I forget what we are now,that we're ghosts given form by the will of powers beyond us.

He moves again and finally speaks with a sleepy voice,"What time is it?",he asks,then slides up closer to me in his sleepy haze.If he were more awake he'd be less affectionate, so I soak it up like a sponge.

"Early...too early. You should get back to sleep,get some beauty rest...though you're enough of a stunner that I don't know if it would make much a difference ",I said which earns a lazy eye roll and a smile from him before he shoves me gently.

"It's too early for this.I'm not having sex with you Setanta",he said. And hearing my name from his lips just raises my spirits in a way few other things could ever hope to.

"Oh,come on! I'm not even thinking it",I said kinda chuckling and all cuz it's only partly true. I just want him near me really. If he wanted to offer his body though,I'd take it along with everything else he had to offer. Gods know I can't get enough of him ,no matter how.

I can't even beleive there was a time where I hated this guy enough I wanted to kill him on sight. That doesn't even seem like a possibility now.But that was because back then I saw him as someone he wasn't -- Someone quick to stab any and everyone to get their way and I can't respect that. It was like everything about him went against my principles ,like we were born to clash.

But that's because I didn't know the truth.

Didn't know that he was so tortured,didn't know that he was so deep in despair he was burning a path which would end his own sad existance.Knowing that put everything in a new perspective. I realized that everything I thought I knew then was so wrong.And that's because he wanted it so. (And it's so like Emiya to do something like that...)Where I saw a man who had no pride and loyalty,was really a man full of regret at the end of his ropes. He wasn't evil ,he was desperately trying to claw his way out of a really fucked up situation.

(Something I'm familiar with more than I want to admit).

I didn't know before but when I think about it,there was always something broken in his words,in his gaze. When he stood before he and just admitted defeat like that...I realized there was something that was fragile beneath the harshness that made me think he'd crumble to ash. Through the clash of steel his eyes always showed it,the eyes of a hollow man. I hadn't realized then at first but eventually I caught onto it.

All this time he was a drowning man intent on throwing himself away along with every wasted hope and dream he ever had. Of course that's not what I saw when our blades first clashed,when we first fought . Back then he was just another body for my spear,another victory.Another bastard who didn't have a shred of honor and deserved a bloody end for that very reason.

But that was before I knew...

I wonder if had I never asked on a whim,hadn't been nosy enough and pried,would he what would have become of him? Would we have ever gotten so close like this?

It's honestly something that I don't like to think about.

But right now as he gazes with playful eyes,poking my side,I wash away these thoughts. Thses bits of moments we have are too precious for that. I won't waste even a second of it. In the next momet though,Emiya speaks and I'm all ears because even the sound of his voice gets to me. 

"You know if you want me so badly,Setanta you could always ask",he says with a mischeivous smirk that's so him it makes me grin back.

"I could...but where is the fun in that?",I said sliding a hand to his waist,tracing the dip in his back. I move closer,grasp his chin so he looks into my eyes only.Such a lovely face,those intense eyes. I wonder how I hadn't fallen for him at first sight.But the roar of battle blinds me at times to the point of madness.The only thing that blinds me just as much is love and desire...And I'm just drowning in it now as I gaze back at Emiya.

"I'd rather have you beg",I added just to see him squirm.

And just like that that cocky veneer of his it faltered. More so as I tighten my hold on him,as I trace his hips. As much as I want to possess him, he wants to be possessed.As much as I went to claim him,he wants to be claimed.As much as I desire him he wants to be desired.And so that little moment of innocence lasts just a second before he fixes me with a smoldering gaze.

"Make me" he challenges me and that's what does me in.

I wasted no time pouncing on him. It's half play,half desire. His joy and ecstacy are equally valid,I like to have him both ways.We then started tussling on the bed ,laughing openly and freely. Roll atop each other in a mock battle of dominance. We both know who will best whom in that regard,but it's fun either way.

And of course I take a pillow to the face because Emiya for all the good in him is still a sly dog,slick as hell with no dignity about it.So I returned the favor and threw the pillow back knocking him against the sheets.For a moment I'm afraid he's hurt,but it passes when I see his face.He's spread out on his back laughing at it.Fully naked and fully joyful.His hair's messy now and he looks so happy and so sexy that I practically short circuit just seeing it.

It all ends though with me grabbing his wrists pinning them above his head. And I lie against him only the slightly breathless.He's chuckling and squirming under me as our heads press together. Emiya is strong,there's no question in that.His body's all lean muscle, from years of training himself as a warrior and maybe it's his desired form as a heroic spirit.But there is softness in his eyes,in his thighs.He's strong enough that even I can feel my spear rattle when he crashes his swords against my spear. Yet he has delicate hands and slender wrists, a soft face,with pretty lips .Though all his strengtht he and I both know that bare handed he has little chance against me,something expected thanks from my father's blood.

And despite that he shows no fear,no instead he relaxes in my grasp,like it's nothing. And that's what makes him so dangerous. Unpredictable as he is, I can read him so easy yet hardly at all. Had we been where we were before it would have been an opening, but now it's a sign of trust.

Our eyes lock and his gaze goes soft ,and I can't help but be taken in by those captivating eyes. So I kiss him,kiss his brow,his cheeks,his nose,his lips. And as he closes his eyes,I kiss him there too. And the best part is that he lets me do this with no resistance. He lets me get closer to him than anyone else.

"Setanta.."he says to me between kisses,between breaths.

"Shh...",I say and silence him with kisses.

"Emiya ...",I say aloud. Another kiss then another,each time lower now,down his throat,his chest.He gasps now,shifts beneath me,hands clutching my arms. I grind against him and he grasps agin in that soft,low,alluring voice of his.

"Setanta..."he says again.

"Emiya..." I whisper against his soft skin as we become closer and closer. He's getting aroused as much as I am ,I can feel him against me,feel his warmth and the pace of his breath.

Another kiss I give him and he kisses back as deeply as I so.I kiss him like dying man needs water. And he let's me do it,moves his mouth against mine so we're both pulled in. We finally broke for air and I was first to speak.

"I love you ",I said before coming in for more. I brushed his kios agin,his jaw,his ear.

"I love you too ",he says back and quick too.Not like before when he hesitated,no.He said it like he meant it. And because of that I feel my heart racing and breaking ,but then our fingers entertwined, it all stills. And all I could think was 'damn...he's got me again..'.

And that's when I knew...I knew what I'd been thinking all along,felt it too. But I see it with clarity now.

Nothing else matters now,just us.

Nothing else matters except you, Emiya.

In twelve hours,the sun'll set and we'll be at each other's throats again. In twleve hours,we'll be mortal enemies,or try like hell to fake like we are.

All that we have now will fall apart come nightfall and the chance that I will never see him again looms so terrifyingly near and I don't know how to deal with it.

Twelve hours.

But in that time,we'll make the best of what we have. We'll spend every waking moment with each other.

In the time we have, I'll show Emiya how much I love him.

Right now ,it's all I can do.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so there we go! And there's more where that came from. I don't care who judges me,I'm riding this ship first class damnit,but I am open to constructive criticism. 
> 
> I wanted to do something interesting and contrast Cu's thoughts and words...he gives me the impression of somebody who feels very deeply but knows not to just drop his bagage on people's doorstep (unlike Emiya who is just walking bagage and is really transparent about it).i think thwt the first moment of meeting Emiya Archer,of course you're wow'd by him,he's pretty badass and he's seems pretty sure of himself. But peelibg back layers those broken pieces of him there and it's just sad and cruel hie fate(Emi seserves all the hugs).
> 
> Cu got the short end of the stick too.But things went a bit different for him.He kinda saw it coming I think but damn...the way it happened.I do like how one moment he's chill,and the next he's just out there in the wild, kicking ass and being a chivalrous but crazy bastard. The two of them have quite a bit in common yet they are near opposites (makes since they'd hang out when they're not tryingto kill each other). 
> 
> Their honestly two of my favorite characters not just in Fate but period. There's a lot of layers there ,and I like their personalities ,their quirks and such too. All I have to say is wow...don't let first imoressio.s fool you. That is true in both regards.


End file.
